Mermaids
by blue sakuras
Summary: Don’t ever let them see you. Don’t ever stay up there too long. Don’t ever fall in love. Don’t ever touch one. The four most important rules for a mermaid. Break one, and suffer consequences. Break all, and suffer damnation.
1. Breaking the Rules

AN: I couldn't help it! I think I'm on my way on writing only angsty stories. Don't worry. I always track off and make them really funny. At least I think so.  
  
So I thought Disney made this one a really angsty one. Too bad they shortened the version. In the REAL 'The Little Mermaid', the prince actually marries another girl. The sea witch, Ursula if you insist, gave the mermaid's sisters, Ariel's sisters if you insist, a dagger. If she plunged that dagger into the prince's heart while he was sleeping with his new wife, she would be returned her fins. That had to happen that very night, and if she didn't, she would be the one to die. She doesn't kill him, and instead becomes an angel, which was what she wanted to truly do. Become an angel. Mermaids don't become them, they just... disappear into the waves, becoming one with the ocean.  
  
Cool sounding, but she wanted to fly, be in the forbidden sky, and soar throughout the clouds. Yeah. Something like that.  
  
_**The real version is posted here. It's the fourth 'chapter'... so can people stop e-mailing me for the real version...?! (Especially since something's really wrong with my account right now...)**_

**__**

She immersed herself into the water. The glory of swimming, such as this. Holding up an arm, she reached out to grab at the air, but closed her fist, pulling her hand painstakingly back towards her body.  
  
"No. I musn't. I promised. Never again." And she sorrifully turned her head and swam slowly back towards her home, the kingdom underneath the waters.  
  
Atlantis.  
  
Mermaids  
  
Chapter One  
  
Breaking the Rules  
  
By: blue sakuras  
  
Don't ever let them see you.  
  
Don't ever stay up there too long.  
  
Don't ever fall in love.  
  
Don't ever touch one.  
  
The four most important rules for a mermaid. If you ever passed the test of human transformation, then you could see the land above. But if you were to disregard the four most important rules, then you were forbidden to return to the soil. Forbidden for contact with humans and demons alike.  
  
Kagome had broken all four. She was banned to transform for 400 years. To become a human, to have two legs, to be able to walk around, and to breathe air. She was forbidden for 400 years. After those long years were over, she could once again go to see, to see the land, the rich, firm soil. But what would it be for? Why should she go if the one she had loved up above was no longer there? After all, he was only human. And humans don't live that long.  
  
Why should she go back to a place that would only break her heart even further?  
  
She had broken so many rules, that getting a pardon would be impossible. Not hard, but impossible. There was no hope for one. She had broken the four most important rules, and many others. But the four rules she had broken, would cause her enough grief. That was why they had let her live.  
  
If the grief the situation caused her were not much, they would have taken her life And she would have become one with the waves, one with the ocean that she loved so dearly.  
  
But she had chosen to forsake the waters, and be on land. And even more, she made a choice to be on land, to stay with the human she loved. The mortal.  
  
_"Mermaids are immortals and MUST remain separate from those who take the normal way of life. Death." Rang her mother's stern voice, the memory of her talk with her mother evident. Kagome smiled sadly at the memory.  
  
"Why?" a little Kagome had asked, curious to know why mermaids couldn't be friends with humans.  
  
"Because, in the end, only grief will come." She answered with a sad tone.  
  
"What about youkai?"   
"No, because, even though they live a much longer life span, they also suffer from the ageing of time."  
  
"But why can't we still be friends? And mermaids still die too! Isn't that what happened to Papa?"  
  
Her mother looked down at Kagome sadly, almost painstakingly. "Yes, but that was for other reasons."  
  
"But-"  
  
"Hush, and go to sleep. I'll explain more when you're older."_  
  
'But you never got to.' Kagome thought bitterly, 'Because a week later, you died too. You left me all alone, just because of your grief. You didn't love me enough to bear the pain with me.'  
  
Closing her hands into fists, Kagome swam towards her room, ignoring Kaede's call.  
  
  
  
"Do they really exist?"  
  
"Yep. And they can crawl out of the sea," and the man talking pantomimed crawling in a creepy way, "And go to your room," pointing at the young boy, "And eat your fleeessshhh.. Shippou... your fleeessshhh.." Inuyasha grinned.  
  
"Ew. You're disgusting." Rin pipped up.  
  
"Yeah, well, YOU guys are the ones that wanted me to tell you about them." Grinning like the moron Sesshoumaru thought he was, he strolled towards the water, the tide barely touching his toes.  
  
"Uncle Inu! I wanna know! Do they REALLY exist?" a cute voice pipped up from behind him, a tugging on his shirt. Turning around, Inuyasha saw that it was Koharu, the little maid girl from the kitchens. Kneeling down, he took her hand and nodded solemnly.  
  
"Did you hear what I told Rin and Shippou?" And with a nod from her, he continued, "Well, that won't happen to you, if you're a good little girl. Now, did you get the goods?"  
  
Grinning, she pulled the hand from her back and showed him the bowl of ramen.  
  
"YES!" Grabbing the bowl, he shouted his thanks to the girl and started running.  
  
"INUYASHA!" a deep voice barked out from the cliff up above. "GET BACK WITH THAT RAMEN!"  
  
Grinning, (He seems to be doing a lot of that ne?) Inuyasha turned and started running backwards, just so he could flip off Kouga, the cook.  
  
"FUCK OFF!"

AN: **I didn't change anything** except my author notes... too many people have been e-mailing me for the real version of the Little Mermaid. If you read on, you'll see that the real story is in chapter four!!!!!

::cough:: Sorry, it's just that I was sorta getting tired of getting e-mails to e-mail somebody something that was already posted here... ::sigh::


	2. You Really DO Learn Something New Everyd...

AN: Well, enjoy this, oh and can anyone send me suggestions for Japanese names? More uncommon ones? Not like Sakura or... I dunno. And please tell me if a girl or boy is more likely to have it. Why I say it like that? Well, because frankly, you can name a boy Alice or a girl Peter.  
  
-..-; Oh yeah. I envy those children. (Not that it's bad or anything. I just have a bad association with both of those names. One is my cousin's , and one is my sister's..I know you can see me shuddering right now.)  
  
Oh and, I make some words capital all the way because when I post things on fanfic.net, they don't show up with the italics or bolds. But the capitals do. So yeah.  
  
ENJOY~  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
People have always wondered if mermaids exist.  
  
They have also wondered if sea 'monsters' exist.  
  
That's silly. It's very simple. They both reside in the realm.  
  
They have powers to conceal, and hide away into the shadows..  
  
They just choose certain individuals to see their physical being.  
  
Those 'chosen' are often labeled as insane, eccentric, or lonely for attention, when in fact, they were chosen because of their love for the sea, their spirit for the waves, their honesty to the tides, and their loyalty to the waters.  
  
Then there are those who just chose to believe. Those are labeled as crazy.  
  
But if some believed hard enough, and they sailed long enough on the waters alone, they just might catch a glimpse.. just a small glimpse of what the waves had to offer.  
  
Those lucky enough to see something, changed. They no longer walked the same as they once did, no longer talked the same, no longer acted the same, and sometimes no longer remembered.. anything.. not even themselves.  
  
Mermaids  
  
Chapter Two  
  
You Really DO Learn Something New Everyday..  
  
By: blue sakuras  
  
She sat in the dark, waiting for the sun to shine through the reflection of the waters. She paid no attention to the servants pampering her hand and foot. She paid no heed to the knocking on the door.  
  
She was in her own little world, numb from the grief she had been suffering for a month. Emotionally, she was wiped. Physically, she was in tip-top shape.  
  
But there was no need to move. No reason. Everything had no meaning to her. Anyone taking a quick glance would backtrack. They would see pale skinned mermaid, with tangled ebony hair, slicking carelessly into a ponytail. Her scales, once shiny and sleek, were now cracked and dull. But what would bother those who saw her for the rest of the day would be her eyes. It was because of her eyes that she was in her room. She was the pride of her grandfather, being the first in 500 years to have sky blue eyes. Eyes that shone, shone like the crystal water they swam in. Like the calmness, the swaying of the waves. But now, they were lifeless. They were dull, and the clear sky blue color that had once occupied those eyes were now brown. No one knew how it had happened. Some say it was the mortal she loved that did it. Others said it was her broken heart. No one could figure out, and no one dared ask. And if any had dared to ask, there would be no answer.  
  
She had stopped talking the moment the sentence was given. She did not beg, she did not plead. She did not ask for a pardon of 50 years, not even for one of 5. (AN: A pardon takes off years of your punishment. So, 400 - 50 = 350. Yeah. It's something like that. Sierra Mist. Sorry, I couldn't help it!)  
  
She had not even asked for a short good-bye meeting that was sometimes given to special cases, like hers. She did not ask, so she did not receive. The question everyone wanted to have answered was 'Why? Why didn't she ask for the meeting?'  
  
Kagome sat on her bed, motionless, drilling holes into the walls with her consistant gaze. As soon as she knew that everyone had left her room, she got up and went to lock the door. She then proceeded to close the curtains on each window and secured them tightly. This took her awhile, considering the four windows she had, and the size they were. The windows were custom built for her, and were big enough to let in ten dolphins at the same moment. That was the reason they were custom built.  
  
After making sure each rope was securely fastened, because the last time she had done this, she had accidentally looped the drapes wrong, and Miroku, her gods damned grandfather's page boy, (I think that's what you call those peoples) had overheard a conversation with information he shouldn't have heard and reported EVERYTHING to the captain. That was how everyone had found out about HIM.  
  
Making her way over to the bed she had sat on for four hours straight, she pushed it to the left about two feet, and lifted the rug underneath so that the trapdoor showed. Pulling it open, she quickly fixed the bed so it looked like she was in it, positive that no one would check too closely on her, seeing as the sentence still had everyone in the palace shocked. The most regal and most honorable princess, the favorite grandchild of Higurashi was meeting on land, on SOIL with a MORTAL. It had shocked everyone, and left no one on her side, at her emotions expenses, well, unless you counted Sango.  
  
And that was where she was going to right this moment. Positioning herself deep enough into the trapdoor to pull the bed back over the hidden 'escape' route, Kagome pulled the rug over as she quickly, but quietly shut the door with an expertise only experience could give.  
  
"Kagome? Is that you?" a voice below Kagome whispered.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
A sigh of relief could be heard, as well as a dull thud. "Good thing you answered, because I was just about to smash your head with the shovel."  
  
Chuckling, Kagome lowered herself to Sango's level. "I was just being extra careful. Last time I wasn't and look where that got me." She stated bitterly, not bothering to hide her angry looking expression.  
  
"Hey." Sango said in a soft tone. "It's alright. But are you sure you don't want to take up my offer?"  
  
Kagome nodded. "Yeah, but when I feel like seeing someone whoop Miroku's sorry ass, you'll be the first to know. And do." She added as an afterthought, smiling a little of the thought.  
  
"Yeah, I'd do it. But, I'm not talking to him anymore." This news caused a gasp to come from Kagome.  
  
"What? Why? I thought you two were getting along wonderfully!" she asked, quite in the dark.  
  
"Oh yeah." Sango gave her a dead panned look. "We're just hunky-dory after what he did to you."  
  
"Oh, you mean that.." and seeing Sango nodding her head, Kagome dropped the subject. "I'm sorry." She spoke in a remorseful tone, completely sincere in her apology, sad that she had ruined her best friend's relationship with her boyfriend.  
  
"It's okay. That wasn't the only reason anyway. He kept groping other girls. In front of me too." She stated in a cheery voice.  
  
Kagome stared. And then fell flat on her face. "I-in FRONT of YOU? What the - what was wrong with him?" she stated, as she got up.  
  
Shrugging, Sango started for the end of the tunnel they were currently in. "Come on."  
  
Quickly getting into stride (how do you describe them swimmingly? I have no idea. So I'm just gonna make it like their walking ok? OK.) with Sango, Kagome took a glance at her face. Her eyes were reddish, like she had been crying. Turning her head slightly, so that Sango wouldn't notice that she had been examining her friend's face, she asked.  
  
"So what were you doing here?" Sango immediately stopped in her tracks.  
  
"Nothing." She stated after a moment's pause and started to continue swimming.  
  
"Sango.." Kagome started off in a warning tone. She heard the girl sigh and turn around.  
  
"Fine, I'll tell you when we get back to my place."  
  
"You better."  
  
^.~  
  
"So remind me again why the hell I'm doing this."  
  
"Because Sesshoumaru will kill you if you don't and stop using so much profanity in front of the children!"  
  
"So are you saying that if the twerps aren't here, I can cuss to my heart's content?"  
  
Kagura gave Inuyasha a long look. "No."  
  
"Awww.. Damn it!" he was beginning to enjoy himself. If he had to suffer, so did everyone else around him. And maybe Kouga.  
  
"I know for a fact that your twisted little tainted head will forever defile my children's heads forever if you got your way."  
  
Inuyasha snorted. "I know you want me to."  
  
"Hmph." And began to walk away in a fast pace, leaving Inuyasha behind rather quickly.  
  
"Wait!"  
  
After catching up with the irritated wind-user, who also happened to be his unfortunate sister-in-law, Inuyasha decided that he didn't want to go meet this arranged date that his brother had planned for him. So he fell over. Literally.  
  
"What are you doing?" Kagura asked him in a voice that said if he gave her a wrong answer, or one that she didn't like, she would kick him.  
  
"I'm dead."  
  
"I can only wish."  
  
"Ow." Kagura had gotten quite pissy about this whole situation and the way Inuyasha was taking it, so she had planted her left foot firmly on Inuyasha's chest.  
  
"Yeah, ow. Now get up before I kick you in the sides."  
  
"You wouldn't dare."  
  
"Oh really?"  
  
Inuyasha really shouldn't have provoked the wrath of Kagura.  
  
^.~  
  
Sesshoumaru looked out of the window, hoping to find the cause of all the racket. He noticed that his wife and half-brother were walking through the gate. Actually, it was more of Kagura dragging Inuyasha, while he was yelling profanities at the top of his lungs.  
  
"HEY RIN! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE WORD FUCK MEANS? IT MEANS TO - OWW!"  
  
Kagura always was the smart one. She had tugged on his ear, his weak point.  
  
"Inuyasha!" he called out from the open window. "If you yell any more, I'll throw out all the ramen in the house!" Even from his view point, Sesshoumaru could see Inuyasha's eyes widen and his ears perk up.  
  
As they entered the house, Rin ran up to the pissed off hanyou and hugged his legs.  
  
"Uncle Inu? What does fuck mean anyway?"  
  
Sesshoumaru and Kagura glared. Hard.  
  
"Inuyasha. Run."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
AN: I'm at a loss. I just realized how freakin' long my stupid author notes were. Ecckkk.. no wonder people complained. Eck. So, I'm gonna try and shorten them.   
  
But I have a question for y'all.  
  
Does anyone know what happened to a really good fanfic called 'YOU!' by Sakura-chan88? Because I can't find it. And I can't email the author, because of my stupid computer and my freaky dad.  
  
And here's another shameless plug for a new story I'm going to be putting out in about.. a month or two.  
  
Or never. It just depends.  
  
SUMMARY: Kagome is one of the few chosen. She is a member of the Order of Blue. She and another select much compete for the position to be honored as a member of the Order. She falls for a guy. Things get in her way and complicate her goal in becoming a Blue. She must eventually choose. Her destiny or her love? Inu/Kag  
  
(Oh, and don't pin me on the title! I still haven't decided.)  
  
E-mail me and tell me what you think!  
  
1.) Blue or Inu? (I highly dislike this one, but I put it up because it rhymed! -.-; Yeah)  
  
2.) Order of the Blue  
  
3.) Black and Blue  
  
And feel free to give suggestions! I'm not that.. Uh. what's the word? Picky?  
  
And would you like me to write lil' smart things that I make up? Umm... like... has anyone read Nightmare's Memories? It's by Maiden of the Moon. It'll be something LIKE those, but nothing as good. And I want everyone who's reading this bio to go read her stories right now! ALL OF THEM! She's like oe eof the best damned writers on this website!   
  
(she's on fanfiction.net, not mediaminer.org)  
  
Ja Ne~ 


	3. Punishment, Plans, and Petty Men

AN: I would like to know if anyone reads my bio. (I just do)  
  
And no one gave me names!!  
  
I feel all good inside....  
  
O.o  
  
To Kaze no Kagura   
  
About the time thing between chapter one and chapter two.  
  
Yeah it's only been a month since she was 'banned'.  
  
And I just want to clear this little thing up.  
  
To be banned is to not be allowed to transform into a human, legs and all, and go to the land. That's what it is. It doesn't mean she can't leave her room, or anything.  
  
That's getting grounded. @.@  
  
And you're right. Sesshoumaru is the hottest guy on the show ^^  
  
To Dark Queen of Roses  
  
THANK YOU! I think I found that 'Blue Destiny' was great! How come I didn't think of that?  
  
.......  
  
Oh yeah. It's too hard to think that much. Thank you so much! And I will consider using that title!   
  
Knowing myself (or at least I think so) that is a possibility. Thank you anyway!  
  
(I'm hoping for more suggestions, but I really liked yours!!!) If you want to know what the hell I'm talking about, then look at the author's notes on the bottom of chapter two.  
  
And y'all remember that lil' thing I said about my an's being shorter. I think I flobbed. Yeah. So. To make up for that, an extra long chapter!   
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
You can always feel when a mer-creature is nearby. Sea monster or mermaid. Their minds follow your movements, and you can FEEL their eyes on your backs.. studying every move, chiding every mistake, exclamoring over every strange little detail.  
  
Their prescense cannot be hidden, unlike their physical appearance. So when you think someone is there, and when you look around, be sure to watch the waters.... You might be surprised at what you find.  
  
So when by water.. do not be afraid. The mystical beings will save you.. if you are an innocent.  
  
If not.. then be wary when traveling near seas and oceans..  
  
Mermaids  
  
Chapter Three  
  
Punishment, Plans, and Petty Men.....  
  
By: blue sakuras  
  
"I warned you."  
  
"So?"  
  
"I'm going to kill you."  
  
"You tell me that every day. Sesshoumaru does too."  
  
"I'm going to grab that little throat of your and put my hands on it and squeeze it you until your face is the color of that plum." Kagura crooked a finger elegantly at the mentioned fruit on the floor.  
  
"And then?"  
  
"I'm going to get my fan and give you a good throttling."  
  
"And then?"  
  
"I'm going to get four horses, tie strings to your limbs and attach those said strings to those four different horses, and watch you get pulled apart while sipping a strawberry-banana lemonade."  
  
Inuyasha made a face. "Ewww.... why the hell do you like those things anyway?"  
  
"Hmph. You don't have any taste."  
  
"Looks who's talking."  
  
"Asshole."  
  
"So what's after the horse pulling?"  
  
"Hmmmm... Oh yeah. I'm going to get the big ax from the shed and chop you into little pieces."  
  
"And then?"  
  
"Get one of Kouga's knives and chop you into even ittier and bittier pieces."  
  
"And then?"  
  
"Get Sesshoumaru's sword and revive you to do those all over."  
  
"And then?"  
  
Kagura then growled. "How long have we been doing this?"  
  
Inuyasha's lips quirked up into a smile.  
  
"I was just asking!"  
  
He just grinned even more.  
  
"I didn't say I was giving up!"  
  
All he got in reply was an even bigger lopsided grin.  
  
"DON'T SMILE!"  
  
Even wider.  
  
"That is the most unnatural looking thing I have ever seen, not to mention the ugliest." Sesshoumaru said, as he walked across the room to give his wife a kiss and receive a scowl from his brother.  
  
"This is against the rules. But who the hell cares! I win."  
  
This earned him a glare that could kill from the 'happy' couple.  
  
"What? I win."  
  
"No you don't."  
  
"Yes I do."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"No."  
  
I  
  
"Alright then. You lose. WE win." Kagura smirked.  
  
"What the - " Inuyasha stared.  
  
"You should never do that Inuyasha. I've tried it lots, but it never works. Women's minds are scary." Bankotsu said, popping out of nowhere and scaring the crap out of everyone in the room. And causing some people to fall over.  
  
"Damn it." Kagura said from the floor, laying completely flat and motionless, staring at Sesshoumaru.  
  
"Bankotsu. How many fuckin' times have you done that this month?"  
  
The stealthy swordsman appeared to be in deep thought, with a finger placed on his chin and his head tilted back slightly. "About sixteen times this week so far."  
  
"I gotta thank you."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because everytime so far, you've managed to make a distraction long enough for me to run for it. Like now." And with those parting words, Inuyasha ran for his life. Which it was literally for anyway. If Sesshoumaru or Kagura caught him, what he was talking to with his sister-in-law would come true.  
  
And he didn't fancy that too much.  
  
^.~  
  
"OH MY GOD!!!" Kagome jumped up squealing and grabbed Sango roughly. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?"  
  
Sango just calmly plucked Kagome's arms off of her and nodded. "Yeah, and you know me. If I figure that the joke with backfire and in someway come back to haunt me, I won't do it."  
  
This worked. Kagome stopped jumping up and down to give Sango an extremely confused look. "What?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"No, what?"  
  
Sango shook her head slowly. "Kagome." She sighed.  
  
"I know. I know." The girl grumbled back. "I need to start learning or I'll never get what you try to say. Even if it doesn't make sense."  
  
"Hey!" came an indignant shout. "I make plenty of sense! Just like the time that I was shorter than you but I was the tallest!"  
  
"....... Yeah. That made a LOT of sense."  
  
"I know!" the older grinned happily. "I'm so wise."  
  
"Ok.... anyway. Are you serious? Can you get me there?"  
  
"Yeah... but you know the consequences if we get caught."  
  
"I know." Kagome's happy face slid into a more somber one. "I'm willing to risk it if I can see him again."  
  
"Ok. I'll plan it out. And I'll come get you when I finish. It'll take about a month or so. Two tops."  
  
"Thank you so much Sango! You're the best friend a girl could ask for!" and she hugged the other girl with the most sincere feeling.  
  
"It's okay. But don't come crawling to me every day to see if I got it."  
  
"Ok.... but I have to get back. I'm sure Kaede must be ready to knock my door down.... again."  
  
Sango chuckled. "Sure, want me to walk with you?"  
  
"Nah. I better go alone. Otherwise they might arrest you."  
  
"Ok. Be careful!"  
  
"I will."  
  
'I'll always be sure now. No more mistakes. Not after what I did. It was just one mistake. And that unraveled my secret to the whole world. One little mistake was the fall of my secret love life. And now? I'm all alone. Besides Sango.' Kagome thought as she swam dreamily through the crystal clear waters.  
  
Slipping back through the trap door under her bed, she accidentally bumped her head on the bed.  
  
"Owww...."  
  
"Hello." Came an old withered voice from above the bed. "Have a nice time out?"  
  
Kagome suddenly blanched. "Oh shit." She whispered. "Please tell me it's Kaede."  
  
A deep male voice rang out. "That was Kaede."  
  
Kagome blanched again. Not very fun when you're underneath a bed that had MAJOR seaweed bunnies. "Please tell me that's not Miroku."  
  
"Sorry child. I don't like to lie."  
  
"Damn it." She whispered, but Miroku and Kaede both caught it.  
  
"Ye child. Do not use such foul language. You are royalty."  
  
"Yeah Kags."  
  
"Grrrrr.... and this is coming from who?" Kagome grumbled, rolling herself out from under her bed lazyly.  
  
She came face to face with Miroku. "BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! YOU PERVERT!"  
  
"What! I didn't even do anything that time! And that smarted you know?" Miroku grumbled as he sat sprawled on his butt and rubbing his cheek, doing what he thought was a glare. It looked more like constipation to Kagome.  
  
"Why the hell are you so..... here?" Kagome asked coldly. She remembered something. HE was the one who told on her. HE was the one who broke Sango's heart. HE was the asshole. HE was the pervert. HE was the traitor. HE was....  
  
Sweet. And kind. And caring. And charming. But that was beside the point.  
  
He was a no-good perverted tattle-tale who was in love with one thing. Money.  
  
"What?" Miroku was surprised at this sudden change of attitude that had come over Kagome. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Nothing." She replied sharply and a bit too quickly. Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. What the hell? Miroku was the mirror of confusion right then and there. While he was off in his own little world, pondering  
  
"Kaede. What are you two doing in here?" she asked in a softer tone.  
  
The old miko looked wearily at her and shook her head slowly. "Aye, it not be good news child. Sit."  
  
Kagome obediantly obeyed and placed herself comfortably on her bed. "What is it?"  
  
"Well...." Miroku began, but cut himself short as he saw the cold shoulder that he was receiving from Kagome. "Kaede?" he motioned for the wizened miko to speak. She nodded in reply.  
  
"Child. This is not going to be good. Your grandfather has decreed that no mers go to the land until further notice. It's because of the war."  
  
Kagome gaped at Kaede. "B-but wh - wait. What war?" she eyed suspciously.  
  
Sighing, Kaede nodded her head towards Miroku, who took the initiative. "King Higurashi has decreed, from today, no mers are to go forth to the solid land. No human transformations are allowed, unless granted special permission by King Higurashi himself."  
  
Kagome just stared.  
  
And stared.  
  
And stared.  
  
And stared some more.  
  
"Ummm..... Child. Ye worry me." Kaede said after a few minutes of waiting for a response.  
  
"What war?" she asked quietly, creeping out the already creeped out Miroku.  
  
"Well...."  
  
"Not you. I want Kaede, not a filfthy traitor." Miroku looked shocked and hurt.  
  
"What?" he asked." I think there's something wrong with my ea - "  
  
"No. There isn't." Kagome cut him off. "I want you to get out. You asshole. You sniveling coward. I hope you enjoyed the bonus my grandfather gave to you."  
  
Miroku just gaped at Kagome. "W-what?"  
  
"You heard me." Kagome said coldly. She shifted her gaze back to Kaede and warmed up.  
  
"Ye child, I think ye should not - "  
  
"Don't tell me what to do about him. I KNOW, I'm not a stupid little ditzy naïve airhead."  
  
"........... what?"  
  
"Just get out!"  
  
Grumbling, Miroku left, but not quietly. Kagome and Kaede could hear the shrieks of offended ladies in the hall, having been victims to his wandering hand.  
  
"He never learns does he?"  
  
"No."  
  
^.~  
  
"Why are we hiding here?" Bankotsu whispered to Inuyasha.  
  
"Because."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"If they catch me, then I'm dead."  
  
"Oh. Ok."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"SESSHOUMARU!!!! KAGURA!!!! HE'S RIGHT HERE! UNDER THE TABLE! WITH ME! I'LL HOLD HIM DOWN!" Bankotsu suddenly yelled at the top of his lungs. Inuyasha glared hard.  
  
"Traitor!" Inuyasha yelled as he dived out from under the fancy wooden table only to find himself at Sesshoumaru's feet.  
  
He slowly got up and took a few steps back to bump into Kagura.  
  
"Oh...... shit......"  
  
"Yup." Kagura grinned evilly. "But since I got SO tired from chasing after you, I've decided to give you a different punishment."  
  
Inuyasha sighed. Nothing could be worse than what she was going to do.  
  
"You get kitchen duty for until Rin stops saying those dirty words. With Kouga."  
  
"WHAT?"  
  
^.~  
  
Sango handed the sea-witch the personal belonging.  
  
"You do know the effects of this potion." Sango nodded nervously.  
  
"Yeah, and she's willing to do just that."  
  
"What about you?"  
  
"I'll stay with her. There's nothing left for me here." She stated bitterly.  
  
A hand grasped the bottle in Sango's left hand. "The potion will take effect immediately. Be sure to be extremely close to the soil when taking it."  
  
"Alright."  
  
"You do know that until she gets a kiss, truly from the heart, she won't be able to walk."  
  
"Yeah. Me too?"  
  
"No. I've modified it."  
  
"Why don't you modify it for her too?"  
  
"Because I had to take some of her batch, and concentrate its power. If I tried to concentrate so much power in both bottles, they would explode." Upon hearing this, Sango held the bottles more gingerly in her hands.  
  
"So she has to get kissed by someone who loves her dearly? So I can kiss on the cheek once we both change and be done with that?"  
  
"NO! And don't even dare trying. All that will happen is you'll get turned back into a mermaid. She will too. It has to be one she loves, not like a sisterly way, not like a motherly way. She had to be IN love with the person. AND it has to be on the lips." She stated primly.  
  
"Ok. Thanks."  
  
"I'd better not see you here again."  
  
"Only if the potions fail!" Sango called back cheerily, her mood uplifted.  
  
^.~  
  
Kaede sat there, watching for any emotion on Kagome's face. It was impossible. During the last month, Kagome had perfected the skill of emotionless facial expressions.  
  
"Child? Are ye alright?"  
  
"Yeah. Can you leave right now? I need some time to think." Kagome said after a moment's pause.  
  
"Alright." Once Kagome heard the door click into place, she quickly got up, secured all the windows tighter, and went to lock the door.  
  
While she was talking to Kaede, she felt Sango enter her room from the trapdoor.  
  
"Kagome?" a voice whispered under her bed.  
  
"Nope. Miroku." Kagome pitched her voice deeper, hoping to freak out Sango.  
  
It worked.  
  
"YOU ASSHOLE!" Sango slinked out of the bed in a flash and had tackled Kagome. Realizing it wasn't her ex, Sango got up, embarassed.  
  
"Oww......."  
  
"Well you shouldn't have done that!" Sango retailated, whispering.  
  
"Not that I'm mad that you're here or anything, but why are you here?" Kagome asked, taking her place on the bed.  
  
"Oh! Here!" Sango reached under the bed and pulled out two bottles. One was red and one was blue.  
  
Handing Kagome the blue one, Sango explained. "I got these, they give you feet. PERMENANTLY."  
  
"Oh. Wow. Sango." Kagome whispered, but this time it was in awe.  
  
"We have to drink these near the surface though. It effects us immediately. And another thing. You won't be able to...." Sango muttered the last couple of words.  
  
"Repeat that last part please. I couldn't hear you!"  
  
"Walk. Use your legs."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Yeah. Do you still want to do this?"  
  
"Is the other potion for giving me the power to walk?"  
  
"No. Didn't I tell you I was going with you?" Sango grinned.  
  
"WHA!" Kagome jumped on her friend, giving her a big hug. "YAY! Wait." Kagome sat up frowning. "You're going to leave? Here? This? Everything?"  
  
"I have nothing left execpt for you. Kohaku, Miroku, Mom, Dad.... All gone."  
  
"Oh. Sango thank you!"  
  
"It's nothing. Really it isn't." Sango gave Kagome a look that meant she didn't want to discuss it anymore. Kagome took it and spoke.  
  
"Shall we do it tonight?"  
  
"T-tonight? But it's the grand day! You're supposed to perform!" Sango protested.  
  
Kagome scoffed. "Do you really think that they expect me to sing? After what happened last month?"  
  
"Oh. Yeah huh."  
  
"Yup!"  
  
"Let me see. I think it was along these lines of 'Don't ever expect me to do anything for this place again.' Yeah. I think that was it."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"We better get started."  
  
"Ok."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
AN: I hope everyone like that! By the way, does anyone know a song by a girl where there is a line that goes..  
  
'That's what you get when you fall in love....'  
  
I don't remember what else. I only remembered that I really liked that song.  
  
Damn me and my memory. It's a slow song by the way.  
  
So if any of y'all know anything, please help!  
  
Oh and REVIEW!  
  
(people seem to be doing less and less of that in my fics)  
  
ta ta~ 


	4. NONCHAPTER: The Little Mermaid original ...

AN: This is NOT a new chapter. Sorry... ^^'  
  
But it is the real story of the Little Mermaid. Enjoy~  
  
The Little Mermaid  
Original Story by Hans Christian Anderson  
  
Far out to sea the water is as blue as the petals of the loveliest cornflower and as clear as the purest glass; but it is deep, deper than any anchor can reach. Countless church steeples would have to be piled one on top of the other to stretch from the sea bed to the surface. That's where the sea folk live.  
  
Now you mustn't imagine that the bottom is just bare white sand, not at all. Wonderful trees and plants grow down there, with stems and leaves so sensitive that they curl and sway with the slightest movement of the water, as if they were living creatures. Fish, large and small, flit through the branches just like birds up in the air here.  
  
At the very deepest point lies the palace of the sea king. Its walls are of coral, and the long, pointed windows are of the clearest amber. The foor is made of cockle shells that open and hust with the play of the waves. It's lovely to see, because nestling in each shell is a shining pearl, any one of which would be the pride of a queen's crown.  
  
The sea king had been a windower for many years, but his old mother kept house for him. She was a wise old lady, but rather too proud of being royal; that's why she always wore twelve oysters on her tail, when the rest of the nobility were only allowed six. Aside from that she was a praiseworthy sort, and she took very good care of her granddaughters, the little sea princesses.  
  
There were six of them, all beautiful, but the youngest was the loveliest of them all. Her skin was pure and clear as a rose petal, and her eyes were as bule as the deepest lake. But like all the others, she had no legs – her body ended in a fish's tail.  
  
All the livelong day they would play down there in the palace, in its spacious apartments where living flowers grew from the walls. When the great amber windows were open, the fish would dart in and out, just as the swallows do up here, and they would eat out of the princesses' hands and let themselves be petted.  
  
Outside the castle was a great park with trees of deep blue and fiery red; the fruits shone like gold, and their flowers glowed like flames among the flickering leaves. The earth was of the finest sand, but blue as burning sulphur. Everything was suffused with blue, so that you might think you were high up in the air, with the sky above and below you, rather than down at the bottom of the sea. When the sea was calm, you could glimpse the sun up above, like a crimson flower from which light came streaming down.  
  
Each little princess had her own patch of garden, where she could plant whatever she fancied. One made a flowerbed in the shape of a whale; another preferred hers to look like a mermaid. But the youngest princess made hers round like the sun and would only plant flowers that shone red like it. She was a strange child, quiet and thoughful. Her sisters' gardens were full of oddments salvaged from shipwrecks, but she had only the statue of a handsome boy in hers. It was carved from clear white marble, and it had sunk to the bottom of the sea when the ship that was carrying it was lost. Beside this statue she planted a rose-red weeping willow, which grew taller than it and shaded it with its overhanging branches. In the play of violet shaodws on the blue sand, it looked as if the statue and the tree were embracing.  
  
The princesses liked nothing more than to listen to stories of the world above. The old grandmother had to tell again and again everything she knew about ships, and towns, and people, and animals. The youngest princess was particularly taken with the idea that up above flowers were scented, for at the bottom of the sea they had no smell at all. She also liked to hear about the green forest, and how the fish that swam among the branches could sing so beautifully. Her grandmother called birds "fish" – otherwise the princesses wouldn't have understood, for they had never seen a bird.  
  
"When you turn fifteen," their grandmother would say, "you too will be able to swim to the surface and sit on rocks in the moonlight to watch the great ships sailing by. If you dare, you can swim close enough to the shore to see woods and towns."  
  
The following year the oldest of the sisters would be fifteen. The others were each spaced about a year apart, so that the youngest would have to wait another five whole years before she was allowed to swim up from the sea bed and take a look at us. But each sister promised the others she would come back after her first day on the surface and tell all the exciting things she had seen. For their grandmother didn't tell them nearly enough – there was so much they wanted to know.  
  
None of them was so full of yearning as the youngest – the one who had the longest time to wait, and who was so quiet and thoughtful. Many a night she stood at the open window and gazed up through the dark blue water. She could make out the moon and the stars, though they were pale and blurry beneath the sea. If a black cloud passd over, she knew it must be either a whale swimming overhead or else a ship sailing along the surface; the passengers and crew never dreaming that a lovely mermaid stood in the depths below them and stretched her white hands out to them.  
  
Now the oldest sister was fifteen, and free to swim up to the surface. When she came back she had hundreds of things to tell. The loveliest thing of all, she said, was to lie in the moonlight on a sandbank when the sea was calm and look across to a seaport town, with its lights twinkling like stars, and music playing, and all the clatter of carts and people; she loved to watch and listen, and to see the church spires and hear the bells ringing. Though she knew she could never go there, yet her heart was filled with longing to.  
  
The youngest princess hung on her every word. Late in the evening, as she stood dreaming at the open window and gazing up through the water, she thought so hard about the town that she imagined she could hear the church bells chime.  
  
Next year the second sister got her freedom. She surfaced just as the sun was setting, and the sight was so ravishing that she could barely describe it. The whole sky had been a blaze of gold, she said, and as for the coulds – she couldn't find words to capture their beauty as they sailed over her head, streaked with crimson and violet. A skein of wild swans had flown into the setting sun, as if drawing a white veil across the water. She had swum after them, but as the sun sank, so the vision of sea, sky, and cloud had faded.  
  
The third of the sisters was the most daring of them all. She swam right inland up a broad river. She saw green hills covered with vines, castles, and farms hidden in the forest. She heard the birds singing, and the sun was so hot that she was often forced to dive back under water to cool her burning face. In a small cove she ha come upon a group of human children splashing in the water, quite naked, but when she tried to play with them, they ran off in alarm. Then a little black animal – it was a dog, but she didn't know that – had come and barked at her so furiously that she took fright and headed out to sea. But she would never forget those magnificent woods and green hills, and those sweet little children who tried to swim in the water even though they had no tails.  
  
The fourth sister was not so bold. She stayed well away from shore, and she said that there wasn't anything more beautiful than the open sea, with nothing for miles around and the sky above like a great glass bell. She had seen ships, but so far away they looked like seagulls. She had swum with the dolphins, who had turned somersaults for her, and the huge whales had sprayed jets of water into the air, like so many fountains.  
  
The fifth sister's birthday fell in winter, so she saw something none of her sisters had seen. The sea looked quite green, and great icebergs were floating in it. They looked like pearls, yet each one was larger than a church tower. They had the strangest shpaes, and they sparkled like diamonds. She had seated herself on one of the largest, and all the sailors had steered away in fear as they sailed past the iceberg where she sat with her long hair streaming in the wind. By evening a storm was blowing. The dark waves lifted the icebergs high up, and lightning flashed red on the ice. The ships had furled their sails and waited out the storm in terror, while she sat calmly on her iceberg and watched the blue lightning zigzag into the glittering sea.  
  
The first time any of the sisters was allowed to go the surface she was always delighted to see so many things that were new and beautiful. But when they were older and could go any time they liked, they soon lost interest; they wanted to be back home. The bottom of the ocean was the most beautiful place of all.  
  
Still, many an evening the five sisters would link arms and rise to the surface together. They had lovely voices – more hauntingly beautiful than any human voice – and when a storm was blowing and they thought the ships might be wrecked, they would swim in front of them and sing about all the wonders waiting at the bottom of the sea. Their song told the sailors not to be afraid of coming down – but the sailors could not make out the words in the howling storm. Nor did they ever see any of the delights of which the princesses sang, for when the ship sank the crew were drowned, and they came only as dead men to the palace of the sea king.  
  
When the sisters floated up to the surface like this, arm in arm, their little sister stayed behind all alone. As she watched them go she would have cried, but a mermaid has no tears, and so she suffers all the more.  
  
"If only I were fifteen!" she sighed. "I know that I shall love the world up there, and the people who live in it."  
  
And then at last she was fifteen.  
  
"There now! We're getting you off our hands at last!" said her old grandmother. "Let me dress you up like your sisters." She set a garland of white lilies in her hair, each petal was half a pearl. Then she made eight big oysters pinch fast onto her tail, to show that she was a princess.  
  
"Ow! That hurts," said the little mermaid.  
  
"One must suffer to be beautiful," said her grandmother.  
  
The little mermaid woud have gladly swapped her heavy garland of pearls for some of the red flowers from her garden, which suited her much better, but she didn't dare.  
  
"Goodbye," she said, and she floated up through the water as lightly as a bubble.  
  
The sun had just set when she lifted her head above the water. The clouds still gleamed rose and gold, and in the pale pink sky the evening star shone clear and bright. The air was soft and fresh, and the sea was perfectly calm. A large three-masted ship lay close by. Only one sail was set, because there wasn't a breath of wind. The sailors were sitting idly in the rigging; below on the deck there was music and singing, and as the evening grew dark, hundreds of laterns were lit, like so many flags.  
  
The little mermaid swam to a porthole and the waves lifted her up so that she could see the smartly dressed people inside. The handsomest of all was a young prince with jet-black eyes. This was his sixteenth birthday, and that was the cause of the celebrations. The sailors were dancing up on the deck, and when the young prince appeared, a hundred rockets shot up into the sky and turned the night back into bright day.  
  
The little mermaid was quite scared and ducked back beneath the water, but she soon surfaced again. It felt as if the stars were falling out of the sky. She had never seen such fireworks. Great suns were spinning around, fiery fish were darting about the blue air, and all this glitter was reflected back from the clear mirror of the sea. The deck of the ship was so brightly lit that you could see every rope. How handsome the young prince was! He was laughing and smiling and shaking hands with everyone, while music rang out into the night.  
  
It grew late, but the little mermaid could not take her eyes from the ship, and the handsome prince. The laterns were put out, the rockets were finished; no more cannons were fired. Yet deep beneath the sea there was a murmuring and grumbling. Still the mermaid rocked up and down on the waves to look into the cabin.  
  
The ship gathered speed; more sails were unfurled. The waves became choppy, and clouds began to mass; in the distance there were flashes of lightning. A storm was brewing.  
  
The sails were taken in, and the ship was tossed about by the huge waves that rose like black mountains high above the masts. The ship was like a swan diving down into the troughs of the waves and riding high on their crests. The little mermaid watched it all with glee – she thought it was great fun. But it was no joke for the sailors. The ship creaked and cracked, and its stout timbers shivered as the raging sea pounded against them. Suddenly the main mast snapped like a stick, and then the ship keeled over on her side as water poured into the hold.  
  
Now the little mermaid could see that they were in danger; she herself had to watch out for planks and bits of wreckage that were floating in the water. For a moment it was so dark she couldn't see a thing; then lightning flashed and she could make out all the figures on board. It was every man for himself. She looked desperately for the young prince, and caught sight of him just as the ship broke up and sank into the sea. For a split second she was filled with joy. Now he was coming to her! But then she remembered that men cannot live in the water, and that he could only come to her father's palace as a corpse.  
  
No! He must not die! She flung herself forward, heedless of the drifting beams that might have crushed her, plunging into the turbulent waves again and again until she found the prince. He was barely able to keep afloat in that heaving sea; his arms and legs were tired out. He closed his beautiful eyes, and he must certainly have drowned if the little mermaid had not come to him. She held his head above the water and let the waves carry the two of them where they would.  
  
By morning the storm was over. Not a trace of the ship remained. The sun rose up red and glorious from the waves, and it seemed to bring a touch of life to the pale face of the prince, though his eyes remained shut. The mermaid kissed his forehead and stroked his wet hair. She thought he looked like the marble statue in her garden. She kissed him again, and wished with all her heart that he might live.  
  
Now she could see dry land ahead, and high blue mountains with snow-covered peaks. Down by the shore there were green woods and a little whitewashed church or monastery, the little mermaid din't know which. Orange and lemon trees grew in the gargen, and by the gate were tall palms. There was a little bay with deep water right up to the shore, and the mermaid swan into it with the handsome prince and laid him on the white sand in the sun, taking care that his head as out of the water.  
  
Now bells rang out from the building, and some young girls came out to walk in the garden. So the little mermaid swam out to some foam-flecked rocks and hid behind them, so that she could wait for someone to come and help the poor prince.  
  
Quite soon a young girl came by. She seemed startled to see the half- drowned figure, but only for a few seconds; then she went and fetched help. The mermaid saw the prince revive and smile at those around him. He did not smile at her; he did not even know that she had rescued him. She felt empty. After he had been taken into the white building, she dived down into the water and returned sorrowing to her father's palace.  
  
She had always been quiet and thoughtful; now she was even more so. Her sisters asked her what she had seen on her first visit to the surface, but she wouldn't say.  
  
On many evenings, and many mornings, she went back to the place where she had left the prince. She saw the fruits in the garden grow ripe and be harvested. She saw the snow melt from the mountaintops, but she never saw the prince, and so she always went home even sadder than before.  
  
Her one comfort was to sit in her little garden with her arms wrapped around the beautiful marble statue that reminded her so much of the prince. She never tended to the flowers, and they grew wild and tangled, climbing and interweaving until they shut out all the light from the garden.  
  
At last she could bear it no longer and told one of her sisters her story; so before long all the sisters knew about it – but nobody else, except for a few mermaids who only told their closest friends. And it was one of these friends who found out who the prince was. She too had seen the birthday party on the ship, and she knew where he came from and where his kingdom lay.  
  
"Come on, little sister," said the other princesses, and with their arms twined around each other's shoulders they rose up through the sea to surface outside the prince's palace.  
  
The palace was built of pale yellow stone, with great flights of marble steps, one of which stretched right down to the sea. Gilded domes capped the roof, and between the pillars around the building were lifelike marble statues. Through the clear glass of the high windows you could see right into the state apartments with their precious hangings and tapestries and wonderful paintings. In the middle of the bieggest room a great fountain played, splashing its ater right up to the glass dome in the roof. The sun shone down through the glass onto the fountain and the beautiful plants that grew in it.  
  
Now that she knew where he lived, she went there many an evening and many a night. She swam closer than any of the other dared – right up the narrow canal into the shadow cast by the prince's marble balcony. There she would gaze at the young prince, who believed himself all alone in the moonlight.  
  
Often in the evening she saw him sailing in his fine boat, with its banners flying and music playing. She peeped from behind the reeds on the shore, and if anyone caught sight of her long silver veil when it was caught by the breeze, they only thought it was a swan flirting its wings.  
  
Many a time, later at night, when the fishermen were casting their nets by torchlight, she heard them speaking well of the young prince, and that made her glad, for she had saved his life when he lay drifting half-dead on the waves. She rememberd how his head had rested on her breast, and how fiercely she had kissed him. But he knew nothing about that, he never dreamed she existed.  
  
She became fonder and fonder of human beings, and longed to join them. Their world seemed so much larger than hers. They could sail across the oceans in ships, and climb mountains high above the clouds. Their lands with their fields and forests seemed to stretch forever. There was so much she wanted to know; questions her sisters couldn't answer. So she quizzed her old grandmother for everything she knew about the upper world, as she called the countries above the sea.  
  
"If human beings are not drowned, do they live forever?" she asked. "Or do they die, as we do in the sea?"  
  
"Yes," said the old lady, "they must die. And their lives are far shorter than ours. We can live for three hundred years, but at the end we just turn to foam on the water – we do not even have a grave down here among our loved ones. We do not have immortal souls; there is no new life for us. We're like the green reeds – once they are cut, they will never be green again. But human beings have a soul which lives forever, even after their body has turned to dust. The soul rises through the air to the bright stars. Just as we rise up out of the sea and gaze on the upper world, so they rise up to unknown glorious regions that we shall never see."  
  
"Why have we no immortal soul?" the little mermaid asked sadly. "I would give all my three hundred years if I could live as a human being for one single say, and share in that heavenly world."  
  
"You must not think of such things," said her grandmother." We are happier and better off here than they are up there."  
  
"So I shall die, and drift as foam upon the ocean," said the little mermaid, "and never hear the waves again, or see the lovely flowers and the red sun. Is there nothing I can do to gain an immortal soul?"  
  
"No," said the old lady. "Only if a human lovd you more than his father and mother, and thought only of you, and let a priest take his right hand and put it in your, while he promised to be true to you for all eternity, then his soul would flow into, and you would share in human happiness. He would give you a soul, yet still keep his own. But that can never be. For what we think beautiful down here – your tail – is thought ugly up there. They prefer two clumsy props, called legs."  
  
The little mermaid glanced down at her fishtail, and sighed.  
  
"We must be content with what we have," said the old lady, "and make the best of our three hundred years. We should dance and be gay, for it's a long sleep after. Tonight, let's have a court ball!"  
  
It was a magnificent affair, the like of which has never been seen on earth. The walls and ceilings of the greatballroom were made of glass – quite thick, but perfectly clear. Several hundred enormous shells, rose red and grass green, were ranged as lamps on either side, and their blue flames lit up the whole room. Light spilled through the glass walls into the sea outside, where countless fish could be seen swimming about, their scales glowing purple, silver, and gold.  
  
Through the middle of the ballroom flowed a broad swift stream, on which the sea folk danced to their own sweet songs. No humans have such lovely voices, and the little mermaid sang most beautifully of all. The others clapped their hands for her, and for a moment she felt a thrill of joy, for knew that she had the most beautiful voice of anyone on land or sea. But her thought seen returned to the world above, for she could not forget the handsome prince and her grief that she did not, like him, have an immortal soul. So she crept out of her father's palace, and while everyone else danced and sang, she sat alone in her gloomy little garden.  
  
From up above she heard the sound of a horn echoing through the water. There he is, she thought, sailing so far beyond my reach, though I love him more than my father and mother, though he is always in my thoughts, thought I would place my life's happiness in his hand.  
  
To win his love, and gain an immortal soul, I would dare anything! While my sisters are dancing in the palace, I will go to the sea witch, though I have always feared her, and ask her to help me.  
  
And so the little mermaid left her garden and swam to the place where the sea witch lived, on the far side of a raging whirlpool. She had never gone that way before. No flowers grew there, no sea grass, nothing but bare sand until she reached the fearsome whirl pool, which was twisting and turning like a millwheel, dragging everything it could clutch down into the deep. She had to brave those roaring waters to reach the sea witch's domain. Once through the whirlpool, the path lay over a swamp of hot, bubbling mud, which the sea witch called her peat bog. Beyond this lay the witch's house, deep in an eerie forest.  
  
The trees and bushes in this forest were all what they call polyps – half beast and half plant. They looked like hundred-headed snakes growing from the ground. Their branches were long slimy arms with fingers like wiggling worms; they never stopped moving, from root to tip, and whatever they touched they wound round, never to let go.  
  
The little mermaid paused at the edge of this wood. She was so frightened she thought her heart would stop beating. She almost turned back. But then she thought of the prince, and the human soul, and that gave her courage. She bound up her long flowing hair so that the polyps could not snatch at it. Then she folded her hands together and dived forward, darting as fast as the fastest fish, in and out of the gruesome branches, which reached out their waving arms after her. She noticed that every one of them was holding tight to something it had caught; white skulls of drowned men, ships' rudders and seamen's chests, skeletons of land animals and – most horrible of all – a little mermaid whom they had taken and throttled.  
  
Now she came to a swampy clearing in the wood, where enormous eels were writhing about, exposing their gross, sallow underbellies. Here the witch had built her house from the bones of shipwrecked men, and here she sat, letting a toad feed out of her mouth, just as some people do with a pet canary. She called the vile, slimy eels her little chickabiddies, and pressed them close to her great spongy chest.  
  
"I know what you're after," she cackled, "and you're a fool. But you shall have your wish, for it will only bring you misery, my pretty princess. You want to be rid of your fishtail, and have two stumps instead, like humans have, and then the prince will fall in love with you, and you will marry him, and win an immortal soul – isn't that so?" And the sea witch gave such an evil laugh that the toad and the eels fell away from her and lay there sprawling in the slime.  
  
"You've come in the nick of time," said the witch. "Tomorrow I couldn't have helped you for another year. I shall prepare you a potion. Tomorrow morning go to the shore and drink it before the sun rises. Then your tail will split in two, and shrink into what humans call 'pretty legs'. But it will hurt. It will be like a sharp sword slicing through you. Everyong who sees you will say you are the loveliest girl they have ever seen. But though you will move with a dancer's grace, every step you take will be like treading on a sharp knife – a blade that cuts to the bone. Will you suffer all this? If so, I can help you."  
  
"Yes," said the little mermaid, thought her voice trembled. She fixed her thoughts on the prince, and the prize of an immortal soul.  
  
"Don't forget," said the witch, "when once you have taken a human shape, you can never again be a mermaid. You can never dive down to your father's palace, or to your sisters. Yet if you do not win the prince's love, so that he forgets his father and mother and only thinks of you, and lets the priest join your hands as man and wife, then you will get no immortal soul. On the morning after the prince marries another, your heart will break and you will be nothing but foam on the water."  
  
"My mind is made up," said the little mermaid, as pale as death.  
  
"Then there's the matter of my fee," said the witch. "I won't do it for nothing. Yours is the most beautiful voice of all the sea folk; I expect you think to use it to charm the prince. But that voice you must give to me. You must pay for my potion with the most precious thing you possess. For in return I must shed my own blood, to make the potion as sharp as a two-edged sword."  
  
"But if you take my voice," said the little mermaid, "what will I have left?"  
  
"Your beauty, your grace, and your speaking eyes," said the witch. "These are enough to win a human heart. Well? Have you lost your courage? Put out your little tongue, and I shall cut it off in payment, then you shall receive my precious potion."  
  
"Let is be so," said the little mermaid.  
  
The witch put a cauldron on the fire to prepare her potion. "Cleanliness is a good thing," she said, wiping out the cauldron with some eels that she had tied in a knot. Then she scratched her breast and let black blood drip into the cauldron. The steam that arose was full of terrifying shapes. Every moment the witch threw some dread ingredient into the brew. When it came to the boil, it made the sound of a crying crocodile. But when the potion was ready, it looked like the clearest water.  
  
"There you are!" said the witch, and she cut off the little mermaid's tongue. Now she had no voice, and she could neither sing nor speak.  
  
"If the polyps give you any trouble on the way back," said the witch, "just throw one single drop of this potion at them, and they will split apart." But there was no need for that. When the polyps saw her, they shrank back in terror from the bright vial shining in her hand like a star. So the little mermaid passed safely back across the wood, the swamp, and the roaring whirlpool.  
  
She could see her father's palace. The lights were out in the great ballroom; everyone must be asleep. She didn't dare go and look, now that she had lost her voice and was going to leave them for ever. She felt her heart break in grief. She crept into the garden and took one flower from the flower beds of each of her sisters; then she blew them each a farewell kiss, and rose up through the deep blue sea.  
  
The sun had not yet risen when she reached the prince's castle and made her way up to the marble steps. The moon shone bright and clear. The little mermaid drank the bitter, burning drink and it was as if a two-edged sword had been thrust through her delicate body. She fainted away with the pain.  
  
When the sun's rays touched her she awoke. The pain was still as sharp, but there in front of her stood the young prince. He fastened his jet-black eyes on her, and she cast her eyes down – and then she saw that her fishtaiil was gone, and that instead she had the prettiest, slenderest legs that any girl could wish for. But she was quite naked, so she warpped herself in her long flowing hair.  
  
The prince asked who she was and how she had come there, but she could only look at him with her sweet, sad eyes; she could not speak. He took her by the hand and led her into the palace. Just as the witch had warned her, every step was like treading on a knife-edge. But she welcomed the pain. With her hand in the prince's, she felt she was walking on air. Everyone who saw her was charmed by her grace of movement.  
  
She was given a lovely dress of silk and muslin, and everyone agreed she was the most beautiful girl in the palace. But she was mute, and could neither sing nor speak.  
  
Beautiful girls dressed in silk and gold came and performed for the pricne and his parents. One of them sang more prettily than the rest, and the prince clapped his hands and smiled at her. It made the little mermaid sad, for she knew that she had once sang far more beautifully. And she thought, Oh! If only he knew I had sacrificed my voice in order to be with him!  
  
Next the girls did a delightful dance. When they had finished, the little mermaid lifted her arms and stood on the tips of her toes. Then she began to float across the dance floor, with a grace that had never been seen before. There was such beauty in her movements, and her eyes were so full of feeling, that everyone was enchanted – especially the prince. He called her his little foundling. So she danced on and on, though every time her foot touched the floor she felt she was treading on sharp knives. The prince declared she must never leave him, and she was given a place to sleep outside his door on a velvet cushion.  
  
The prince had a boy's velvet suit made for her, so that she could ride out with him on horseback. They rode through the sweet-smelling woods, where green branches brushed their shoulders, and the little birds trilled from among the cool leaves. She climbed high hills by the prince's side, and though her delicate feet bled for all to see, she only laughed, and followed him until they could see the clouds sailing beneath them like a flock of birds setting off for distant lands.  
  
At night in the palace, while the others slept, she would go down the marble steps and cool her poor burning feet in the cold water. Then she would think of her sisters, down in the deep sea.  
  
One night they came, arm in arm, singing the saddest song. She waved to them, and they recognized her at once. They told her how unhappy she had made them all. After that, they visited every night. Once she saw her old grandmother, far out to sea, and once her father, the sea king, with his crown on his head. They stretched out their hands to her, but they did not venture near enough to speak.  
  
Day by day the prince grew more fond of her. But he loved her only as a dear, good child – he never thought of making her his wife. And she had to become his wife, or she could never win an immortal soul. On the day he married another, she would dissolve into foam on the sea.  
  
"Don't you love me best?" her eyes would plead, when he took her in his arms and kissed her lovely brow.  
  
"You really are the dearest creature," the prince would say, "because you have the kindest heart. You are so devoted, and you remind me of a young girl I saw only once, and shall probably never see again. I was on a ship that was wrecked, and the waves carried me to land close to a convent, which was home to many young maidens. The youngest of them all found me on the beach and saved my life. I saw her but twice, no more, yet I know she is the only one I could ever love, and you are so like her that you almost take her place in my heart. She belongs to the temple, but good fortuen has sent you to me – we shall never be parted!"  
  
Ah! He does not know that I was the one who saved his life, thought the little mermaid. He does not know that I was the one who carried him through the waves to the convent, or that waited in the foam to see if anyone would come, and saw for the pretty girl whom he loves better than me. She gave a deep sigh, for she did not know how to cry. The girl belongs to the convent, so she will never come out into the world. I am with him every day. I will care for him, and love him, and give up my life to him.  
  
But now people said that the young prince was to be married. He was fitting out a fine ship to go and see the country of another king, but everyone said, "It's not the country, it's the princess he's going to inspect." The little mermaid just shook her head and smiled a secret smile, for she knew the prince's thoughs, and they didn't.  
  
"I shall have to go," he todl her. "My parents insist. But they cannot make me marry this princess, however pretty she is. I cannot love her. She will not remind me of the beautiful girl in the temple, as you do. If ever I chose a bride, I should choose you first, my silent foundling with the speaking eyes!" and he kissed her rose-red mouth, played with her long hair, and laid his head so near her heart that she was filled with dreams of human happiness and an immortal soul.  
  
"Have you no fear of the sea, my silent child?" he said, as they stood on the deck of the spledid ship that was to take him to the nearby kingdom. He told the little mermaid how the sea could turn in a moment from calm to storm, and of the rare fish in the deep, and the strange sights divers had seen down there. And she smiled at his tales, for she knew better than he what lay beneath the waves.  
  
In the moonlit night, when everyone but the helmsman at the wheel was asleep, she sat on the ship's rail and stared down through the clear water. She thought she saw her father's palace. On the topmost tower her grandmother was perched, with a silver crown on her head, staring up through the swift current at the passing ship. Then her sisters came to the surface, wringing their white hands, and looking at her with despair. She waved to them and smiled; she wanted them to know that all was well with her. But just then the cabin boy came out, and her sisters dived down; all he saw was foam on the water.  
  
Next morning the ship sailed into port. Church bells rang out, and soldiers stood to attention with glittering bayonets. Banners were flying; everyone was on holiday. The prince was invited to one ball or party after another; but nothing was seen of the princess. It was said that she was being educated at a convent, learning how to be royal.  
  
At last she arrived. The little mermaid was waiting for her, eager to judge her beauty. She had to admit that it would be hard to find a lovelier human girl. Her skin was so clear and delicate, and behind long dark lashes she had a pair of baby blue eyes.  
  
"It is you!" cried the prince. "You who saved me when I lay half dead on the shore." And he clasped the blushing princess in his arms.  
  
"Now I am too happy," he told the little mermaid. "My dearest wish – all I ever dared hope for – has been granted. You, whose heart is so true, will share my happiness." And the little mermaid kissed his hand and thought her heart would break. His wedding morning would bring her death; she would be nothing but foam on the sea.  
  
All the church bells rang, and heralds rode through the streets to announce the wedding.  
  
On the altar, silver lamps burned rare oils. The priests swung censers with burning incense. The prince and princess gave each other their hands, and the bishop blessed them. The little mermaid, dressed in silk and gold, held up the train of the bride's dress. But her ears did not hear the music, and her eyes did not see the sacred ceremony. This night would bring her death, and she was thinking of all she had lost.  
  
That evening, the bride and bridegroom went on board ship; cannons were fired, and banners flew. Right on the main deck, a sumptuous tent of scarlet and gold had been set up, with the softest cushions on which the happy pair would rest on that calm, cool night.  
  
The sails swelled in the breeze, and the ship glided across the clear water.  
  
As darkness fell, bright lamps were lit, and the sailors danced jigs and reels on the deck. The little mermaid remembered the first time she had come to the surface, and had spied on just such a scene. Now she, too, whirled in the dance, gliding and soaring as a swallow does when it is pursued. How everyone cheered and clapped! Never before had she danced with such abandon. Sharp knives sliced her tender feet, but she scarcely felt the pain beside the raw wound in her heart. This was the last time she would see him – the handsome prince for whom she had given up her beautiful voice, turned her back on her home and family, and day after day endured pain without end. He had never noticed any of it. This was the last time she would breath the same air as he, or look upon the deep sea or the starry sky. An everlasting night, without thoughts, without dreams, awaited her – for she had no soul, nor any hope of one.  
  
The merrymaking lasted long into the night. The little mermaid danced and laughed, with the thought of death heavy in her heart. Then the prince kissed his lovely bride, she caressed his dark locks, and arm in arm they retired to their magnificent tent.  
  
The ship was hushed and still; there was only the helmsman standing at the wheel. The little mermaid leaned her white arms on the rail and looked eastward for the first pink of dawn. The first ray of sun, she knew, would kill her.  
  
Then she saw her sisters rising out of the water. Their faces were pale and grim, and their long lustrous hair no longer streamed in the wind – it had been cut off.  
  
"We have given our hair to the sea witch, so that she would help us to save your life. She has given us this knife. See know sharp it is! Before the sun rises you must plunge it into the prince's heart. When his warm blood splashes over your feet they will join together into a fishtail, and you will be a mermaid once more. You can come down to us and live out your three hundred years before you melt into the salt sea foam. Hurry! Either he or you must die by sunrise. Our old grandmother is grieving; her white hair has fallen out through sorrow, just as ours fell before the scissors of the witch. Kill the prince, and come back to us! Hurry! Do you not see the red streak in the sky? In a few minutes the sun will rise, and then you must die." And with a strange, deep sigh they sank beneath the waves.  
  
The little mermaid drew aside the purple curtain of the tent and saw the beautiful bride asleep, with her had on the prince's breast. She stooped and kissed his handsome brow, glanced into the sky where the red light of dawn was glowing ever stonger, and looked back to the prince. In his sleep he was calling his bride by name; she alone filled his thoughts. The knife trembled in the mermaid's hand.  
  
She flung it far out to sea. There was a glimmer of red as it fell, as if red drops of blood were splashing up from the water. One last glimpse of the prince through eyes half glazed by death, and she threw herself into the sea; she felt her body dissolving into the foam.  
  
And now the sun came rising from the sea. Its rays were so gentle and warm on the cold foam that the little mermaid did not feeel the hand of death. She saw the bright sun and, hovering above her, hundreds of bright transparent creatures – she could see though them to the white sails of the ship and the pink clouds in the sky. Their voices were pure melody – so pure no human ear could hear it, just as no human eye could see them. They had no wings – they were lighter than air. The little mermaid saw that she had become like them, and was floating free above the foam.  
  
"Who are you?" she asked, and she had a voice again – a voice like theirs, so heavenly that no music could ever capture it.  
  
"We are the daughters of the air!" they replied. "A mermaid has no immortal soul, and she can never gain one unless she wins the love of a mortal. Her only chance of eternal life depends upon another. We daughters of the air are not given an immortal soul either, but by good deeds we can make our own soul. We fly to the hot countries, where plague gathers in the sultry air, and blow cool breezes to dispel it. We carry the healing fragrance of flowers to the sick. If for three hundred years we do nothing but good, then we win an immortal soul, and a share in mankind's enternal happiness. You, poor little mermaid, have striven with all your heart. You have suffered, and endured, and have raised yourself into the world of the spirits of the air. Now, by three hundred years of good deeds, you can make yourself an immortal soul."  
  
And the little mermaid raised her translucent arms to the sun, and for the first time she shed a tear.  
  
She heard life and movement from the ship. The prince and princess were searching for her; they were gazing sadly into the foam, as if they guessed she had flung herself into the sea. Unseenk she kissed the bride's forehead, gave a smile to the prince, and then with the other daughters of the air she asceded to a rose-pink cloud that was sailing by.  
  
"In three hundred years I shal rise like this into the kingdom of heave," she whispered.  
  
"Maybe even sooner," said one of the others. "We enter unseen into human homes where there are children. Whenever we find a good child, who makes its parents happy and repays their love, it makes us smile with joy, and a year is taken from the three hundred. But if we see a mean and naughty child, then we must weep tears of sorrow, and every tear adds another day to our time of trial."  
  
~*~  
  
AN: It's longer than even my normal chapter length! WOO~  
  
Well.. if you want the pictures that go with it, the book's called The Little Mermaid and other Fairy Tales  
  
By Hans Christian Anderson  
  
Illustrated by Isabelle Brent  
  
ISBN # 0-670-87840-5  
  
There ya go!  
  
Oh... and I have what you call writer's block... hehe... O.o  
  
Ta ta~ bs~ (thy name is bullshit) 


	5. Something At First Sight

_"Another day goes without any change  
The feeling we live with still remains  
We're stuck in a hole and we're searching for anything to hold onto  
There has to be somewhere that we can be safe from the lives we live each day  
There has to be somewhere that we can be far away...  
  
We have to escape and I will go anywhere if you just lead the way  
Escape to a place where we'll be together, together everyday  
We have to escape....  
  
We could be living how we wanted to  
Instead of doing things we're forced to do  
With no one to tell us that we should be going through what they went through  
There has to be some place that nobody knows, somewhere only we can go  
There has to be some place that we can be all alone...  
  
We have to escape and I will go anywhere if you just lead the way   
Escape to a place where we'll be together, together everyday  
  
We have to escape and I will go anywhere if you just lead the way   
Escape to a place where we'll be together, together everyday...  
  
We have to escape...   
We have to escape...  
  
We have to escape and I will go anywhere if you just lead the way   
Escape to a place where we'll be together, together everyday  
  
We have to escape and I will go anywhere if you just lead the way   
Escape to a place where we'll be together, together everyday  
  
We have to escape..."_ – **_Hoobastank, "Escape"_**  
  
Mermaids  
  
Chapter Four  
  
Something at First Sight...  
  
bs  
  
"I can't believe you set me up AGAIN!" Inuyasha yelled at Sesshoumaru.  
  
"Believe it. You'll be going to the arranged meeting place at the arranged time."  
  
Inuyasha smirked when he heard the orders his brother gave him. "Oh. So does that mean I can – "  
  
"No," Sesshoumaru answered shortly.  
  
Inuyasha growled. He wished that he could just do what he did last time, which was go to the arranged place five hours early for two seconds and then head off to the beach.  
  
"You'll be going with Kagura."  
  
Inuyasha didn't bother giving his control freak asshole of a brother a response as he stormed out of the room, and didn't even acknowledge that his brother had spoken.  
  
"Why are you testing me?" Sesshoumaru grumbled to no one in particular as he got up from his chair and poured himself some brandy.  
  
=.= [anyone noticed i changed these? Apparently doesn't like my other ones...]  
  
As they both swam towards the surface, Kagome couldn't help but glance around nervously. Sango noticed this and gave her a reassuring smile. Encouraged, Kagome swam on.  
  
As they reached the surface, both girls brought out their potions. "Wait Kagome," Sango said after Kagome had pulled her stopper out of her bottle.  
  
"What? You're not having second thoughts are you?" she said hurriedly.  
  
Sango shook her head. "It's just that... it might be hard for you... after we transform... I think we should wait until nightfall."  
  
"Good idea. Let's go enjoy the sea some more!" Both girls giggled and put the potions away, diving under the water for some more fun until they would have to leave the waters they grew up in... forever.  
  
Never to return to the waters.  
  
Never to be able to float through wave upon blissful wave that washed away pain and sorrow.  
  
Never again.  
  
As they swam, they dove through the coral, finding small fish and terrorizing them. Sango and Kagome laughed, chasing after them. It was good to be able to swim. It was good to be able to be free. For the time that they had left, anyway...  
  
=.=  
  
"Look! I don't understand why you want me to get married off so fast anyway to a broad I don't even KNOW but I am not doing this!" Inuyasha growled at Sesshoumaru, who looked bored.  
  
"This is the fifth time you've stormed into my room and started something. This time, if you don't finish it, I'm scheduling the wedding for next week. I am giving you a choice, Inuyasha. The will Father left said that we both had to be married by the time we are both 21. I was already married, so Father left no worries behind about me. You, on the other hand, have yet to find a woman to bring home."  
  
"I've brought home many women and you've turned down all of them!"  
  
"Suitable women, Inuyasha. Suitable for our status."  
  
"Screw it. Kikyou was a good enough choice! She was a freakin' miko for God's sake! How much higher of a status can you get?! I don't get you."  
  
"She didn't tell you, did she...?" Sesshoumaru groaned. Damn that woman. She was one of those venomous snakes that struck those who were weak. Inuyasha had fallen for her, hook, line, and sinker. She was the worst of all the women that Inuyasha had presented to him. And that had been a lot.  
  
"Tell me WHAT?!"  
  
"That mikos are not allowed to wed. They have a vow of celibacy. No marriage. She wasn't a true miko." Inuyasha just gaped. "Do shut that jaw, Inuyasha. It's very unbecoming."  
  
Inuyasha snapped it shut but remained silent. Sesshoumaru began to think that he had scared the boy into shock when he finally spoke. "Liar," he rasped, "you fuckin' _liar_," and stormed out of the room.  
  
Sesshoumaru sighed and called for one of the servants. "Please inform Ms. Yura that we have thought over this wedding decision and decided that she deserves better than my brother, who apparently has a mental issue with himself." The servant bowed and hurried off to complete the task.  
  
Maybe it was just his imagination or was that annoying brother of his actually softening him...? Never mind that, there was business to be taken care of. Besides, Kagura and Rin had already done too much to him...  
  
=.=  
  
Rin splashed into the water, giggling. "Come _on_, you guys! It's so nice in here!" Shippou and Koharu looked hesitantly at each other.  
  
"I don't know Rin... my mommy says that there are _monsters_ in the ocean!"  
  
"And mermaids!" Shippou piped in.  
  
"Oh Shippou!" Rin giggled. "Uncle Inu was just trying to scare you!"  
  
Shippou shook his head. "Well, I don't care. I'm still not going in!"  
  
"Pweeeeeeeeeeease?" Rin pouted. Shippou stared at her and shook his head but in a minute, he found himself in the water beside her. Koharu jumped in after Shippou.  
  
"Yo! Aren't you afraid _they_ will come and get ya?" someone shouted. Inuyasha grinned as he saw Shippou pale slightly. "Besides, even if you aren't, it's getting dark and if you guys don't get back soon, the waves will sweep you away! And I don't want to die just yet at the hands of Sesshoumaru because his daughter got taken by the sea!"  
  
Rin giggled. "Okay! We'll be out in five minutes Uncle Yashie!" Inuyasha groaned and waved his hand, pointing to some boulders.  
  
Inuyasha grinned and watched as they splashed water, all falling helplessly into the water whenever a wave hit them, causing laughter. But soon, the waves became rougher and higher. Inuyasha quickly got up. It was time to call them in. The waves were a bit too rough... it seemed a storm was rising. The longer they stayed, the more perilous it was.  
  
"Rin! Shippou! Koharu! Get yer asses here now!" Inuyasha called. They couldn't hear him, too involved with their playing. Inuyasha tried again but the crashing of the waves covered his voice. "Shit!" He started out for the water, but a wave wet his hair and blocked his sight of the children. When he finally got his hair out of his face, there were only two. He quickly reached them and dragged them to shore. "What happened to Rin?!"  
  
Shippou coughed and shook his head. "I thinks she got dragged under!"  
  
Inuyasha swore, and ran back to the water. The waves were getting bigger and bigger, so Inuyasha paused momentarily and yelled for Shippou and Koharu to get to higher ground and to alert Sesshoumaru that Rin was... was... in the sea.  
  
Shippou and Koharu darted off and when Inuyasha was positive some mutant sea gulls hadn't plucked them from the land, he went back up against the waters. He swam until he could no longer see the coast, or it could have been the fact that the beach was flooded. _Damn them! Why the hell did they have to play where it would flood?!  
_  
Inuyasha swam on and on until he was sure he was going to die of exhaustion. He dove under several times, but there was no sign of Rin. The waves were crashing down harder and harder. Inuyasha just let them sweep him back to the coast, knowing that he would have to be prepared, since the water had risen so that it was almost in line with the top of the cliff. Those rocks on the side of it were rather sharp...  
  
=.=  
  
"This certainly rose up unexpectedly..." Sango mused as the storm raged above them. Kagome nodded in agreement.  
  
"But we have to do it tonight, because Father will most likely put the guards up tonight."  
  
"Mmm... wait – did you see that?!" Sango hissed, pointing a bit upwards. "It looks like a dead seal..."  
  
"No..." Kagome began slowly. "I don't think it's a seal... oh my God!" Kagome breathed the last words.  
  
"What?" Sango asked but Kagome had already darted towards the floating... _something_. "Wait for me!"  
  
Kagome reached the body and swam upwards. She burst through the waves and managed to raise the child's head enough so that she could breathe. When the child didn't respond to the air, Kagome frantically looked for Sango. "Whack her back! She's swallowed too much water!"  
  
Sango did so, and the child woke up, choking. "Who are you?" she asked lazily before falling backwards, unconscious.  
  
"We better get her back to shore. Let's drink right afterwards and tell them that we were caught in the storm too. Perhaps they'll reward us. I'd hate to think we have to wander around with nothing to buy things with."  
  
Kagome nodded.  
  
When they neared the shore, they noticed that the water had risen considerably and the cliff that had hung so high over their heads before was now the shore. They hurried, keeping the child's head above the water until they noticed another man lying in a lump on top of the cliff. He had the most peculiar white hair...  
  
Inuyasha awoke when he felt someone rousing him and groaned. "Damn it, Liana... give me five more minutes and I'll make it worth your while..." He hoped he got the name right. Last time he made a mistake and his cheek had stung for a whole week... not to mention the taunts that Kouga made...  
  
But this only made the shaking continue, and in a rougher fashion. Inuyasha opened his eyes wearily and saw a girl hovering over him. He groaned. "Damn it woman... if you're that impatient, then fine..." and he reached an arm around her, pulling her to kiss her. But he was rudely awakened completely with a slap that smarted horribly.  
  
It also made him jump up, colliding heads with the girl above him. "Oww..." he winced and shut his eyes. "Whatever... go away if you're going to be like that."  
  
A punch to the stomach woke him up fully and he opened his eyes and sat up. "What the fuck?! Helloooooo..." he eyed the broad that sat before him, staring openly. She noticed his gaze and screeched, one arm going up to cover her chest and the other to slap him again. When he fell backwards, he didn't bother getting up. For some reason... his whole body ached. He must have gotten really drunk **and** _really really_ laid last night or something.  
  
Then he remembered the waves. But he moaned slightly and tilted his head to the side. As he did so, he heard the girl whom he had eye-groped hiss to someone else, "Oh shit, Sango! I forgot about _clothes_!"  
  
What a strange thing to say. Nonetheless, he opened his eyes and there before him lay Rin, who looked slightly worn, but just fine in every other sense.  
  
"Oh shit! Well, I think he's waking up fully now."  
  
"He should. I hit him three times."  
  
"WHAT? You WHAT?" the other girl hissed.  
  
Inuyasha scowled. Their voices were irritating... he should go back to sleep... wait – why was he lying on the ground? More precisely, the dirt?  
  
"Where the fuck am I?" he asked roughly as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. Then he looked at the girls in front of him. Except they weren't exactly _girls_ per se. Well, they might be, with those hoote – wait. "IS THAT A FISH TAIL?!"  
  
The girl he had molested twitched and said, "No... they're fake?"  
  
"What the – "and Inuyasha was too startled to say anything else. He leapt up and grabbed Rin, cradling her in his arms. "Get the fuck away from us," he growled dangerously. He narrowed his eyes and stepped back.  
  
"Wait! Please, let us explain!" the other girl cried. "Please!" She tapped the other girl on the shoulder and they both nodded, taking bottles out and uncapping them.  
  
"W-what are you doing?" Inuyasha gasped as they downed the whole thing. Then they both proceeded to collapse on the dirt. Inuyasha's eyes widened, and he ran. He leapt over the wall and into his brother's home, where Sesshoumaru stood in front, apparently to search for them.  
  
"Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru just uttered his name, but the hanyou suddenly felt very, very afraid. "What happened?"  
  
"I woke up and – "  
  
"What happened to _Rin_?" Sesshoumaru growled.  
  
"They were playing and the storm came up too quickly and a wave swept her away. I don't know what happened, but I tried to find her and I passed out. I was on the cliff and these fucked up women on the cliff freaked me out. They had – "  
  
"Did they save Rin?"  
  
"I...guess so." Inuyasha shrugged and walked closer to Sesshoumaru still carrying Rin. "Anyway, why?"  
  
"I'm going to go and see if they need help." Sesshoumaru looked at Inuyasha. "I expect you to take Rin inside and calm Kagura down. She's wrecking my library."  
  
"But those women have... fish tails," Inuyasha faltered as Sesshoumaru, ignoring his younger brother, leapt over the wall in search of Rin's benefactors.  
  
Inuyasha sighed and turned to take Rin back to Kagura, who was probably in the midst of a storm of flying papers, hopefully none that were too important...  
  
=.=  
  
Sesshoumaru sniffed the air, making sure he was headed in the right direction. With the winds blowing the way they were, he could just barely detect a hint of his brother's scent lingering on the dirt.  
  
And it was there he found them. The two women shrieked and covered their chests. "Don't come any closer!" one of them shouted over to him.  
  
Sesshoumaru arched an eyebrow, but closed his eyes in modesty. "Are you two the ones who saved my daughter?" he asked. Sango nodded, but remembered his eyes were close.  
  
"The little girl? Yes!" She had to shout to be heard. "Can you help us?"  
  
Sesshoumaru nodded. "I will assist you in whatever you need."  
  
"Can you take my friend and carry her back to your house?" Sango shouted. Sesshoumaru nodded. Then he proceeded to untie the string that held his shirt together. Sango 'eep'ed and blushed. "What are you – "and was promptly hit in the face by his shirt. He quickly shed his undershirt, which was like a button-up shirt, and tossed it at Kagome, who fumbled with it. He had rather good aim for someone who had his eyes closed...  
  
"Put those on." After noises that confirmed that they had done so, Sesshoumaru warily slitted his eyes open, and finding them decent, strode closer. "What do you need assistance with?"  
  
Sango pointed to Kagome, who was blushing and looked at the dirt. "Could you carry her? She can't use her legs."  
  
Sesshoumaru nodded, and swept Kagome up in his arms, with her legs bent and hung over his arm and her head lying against his chest. She promptly relaxed, knowing it would be easier for him to carry her. Sango quickly got up, making sure that the shirt she had on covered all the necessary areas. "Do you have anywhere to go?"  
  
Sango sheepishly shook her head. "Then I advise for you to come back with me before the storm gets any worse." Sango turned, and stared out at the stormy sky, nodding. She couldn't help but slide her gaze toward the crashing waves and have a small pang of sorrow run through her bones.  
  
Sesshoumaru began walking, setting an incredibly difficult pace. He noticed that Sango was struggling, so he slowed down. Soon, they reached the wall. Positive that she could not jump it, Sesshoumaru turned to her. "Wait for me. I'll take your friend over first and then I'll come back for you." He leapt before Sango could protest.  
  
Seconds later, Sango appeared behind Sesshoumaru, grinning. "No need."  
  
Sesshoumaru nodded and they quickly went into the house, where Inuyasha started howling, "WHAT THE HELL?!"

=.=  
  
AN: Okay... well this is a record for me. Three updates for three different story within a week. WOOO Okay... So I just have a lot more time on my hands now... but not in August... I have band camp then.  
  
Haha... yeah. Does anyone figure me for a band geek...? I bet you guys can't guess what instrument I play!!! [unless I told you in another random author's note...=.=]  
  
Oh and it's SEVEN in the morning right now. I went to bed at three. I woke up from a nightmare I've been having since I was three... it scares the living shiite out of me. I'm so paranoid now. I can't sleep unless all the lights in my room are open... is there something wrong with me?  
  
OH! And but this time the dream was different... because Jaken was in it too. But it doesn't sound as funny as you think... it scared me really bad. Well, I won't bore you with my stupid dream now...  
  
PS... apparently doesn't like the little wavy line I always use... or asterisks for that matter... ::whine:: No Faaaaaiiir!


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